


the moon now rises to her absolute rule

by Starry_Fantasies (starfleur)



Series: when the world snippets [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Childhood Memories, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hatake Clan Worldbuilding, Introspection, Prompt Fill, Sakumo feels, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 23:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8773492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfleur/pseuds/Starry_Fantasies
Summary: For this prompt by Aesoleucian (because they correctly guess apparently everything I'm writing in "when the world"): iiif I get to choose an omake... I want... Sakumo snuggling with his wolves and thinking about home... like nice memories... I want him to be happy while not killing people..





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aesoleucian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesoleucian/gifts).



> Title from Henry David Thoreau's poem of the same name.
> 
> Please enjoy.

Sometimes, Sakumo steps off the field completely caked in blood. It gets in his clothes, his skin, his eyes, his _mouth_ \--

And in his dreams.

There was a reason he came to the battlefield—he reminds himself of it every day. It’s his fault that this war is happening; it’s his fault that so many are dying. It’s his fault that every shinobi in the Elemental Nations is experiencing the Second War all over again.

These nightmares are just a side-effect of his mistake. They’re a direct result of the war _he_ has caused, and they’re things that are being suffered by almost every shinobi in existence because of him.

He would never— _never_ —wish these nightmares on another being, not even his enemies, and the less he thinks of _Kakashi_ suffering these dreams of bathing in blood, condemnations ringing in his ears—well. The less he thinks of Kakashi suffering these nighmares, the better. Thankfully, he knows that even if Kakashi will be a genin in just a few months, the Sandaime will limit Kakashi’s jounin promotion until Kakashi is at least wartime graduation age. That’s four years, and if Sakumo plays his cards right, Iwa will withdraw from the war long before that.

Tonight, he wakes with a cry of _“No!”_ on his lips and a lurching desperation in his stomach, bolting upwards and reaching out a hand he knows won’t be fast enough.

Sakumo pants for breath, whatever he dreamt slipping from his grasp. It eludes his memory, even as he tries to remember what unsettled him so badly.

_“I’ll teach you what it feels like to lose a son!”_

His heart is still racing.

Slowly, he lowers the trembling hand outstretched in front of him. After a long minute, he registers the red-furred wolf in front of him in a defensive position, hackles raised.

“Ah…Ah, Hiroto. Sorry. That…that was my bad, sorry. Just a dream,” he rubs his hand into the area behind his summons’ ears absently, trying to smile but knowing it comes out as more of a grimace.

Hiroto settles at that, turning around and nudging Sakumo’s face.

“Are you certain?” he rumbles out, concern in his voice. “You smell strongly of fear still.” Before Sakumo even has a chance to respond, Hiroto rears back slightly onto his hind legs and places his forepaws on Sakumo’s shoulder, pushing him down with his weight but careful not to crush him. “Rest, Sakumo. Yuuma will keep watch.”

Hiroto is a solid mass of warmth and muscle as he sprawls against Sakumo's side (and half over him too). Sakumo buries his fingers in thick, silky fur and can almost pretend he’s ten again, finally old enough to sign the summoning contract for the wolf cubs he’s been playing with for years now (the wolves have been contracted to the Hatake Clan for so long that their blood and chakra are intertwined—so intertwined, in fact, that even at ten years old, his chakra network is just stable enough that he can contract with them. Only barely, and only because of his bloodline, but it’s more than enough for Sakumo).

He’s been playing with these wolves ever since he was born, after all, and they were his in all but name. Traditionally, each Hatake would only have one wolf companion—either a summons or a nin-wolf—but there were few enough in his clan as it is, and more than enough wolves. They were his playmates and caretakers, and always just _his_. It was something he reminded himself of often, when his parents were on the fighting rotation.

The fighting rotation was due to the lack of civilians in his clan, and _that_ was partially because that was how it had been before they had joined Konoha but primarily because there were so few people in the clan. Instead, the members of his clan fought on a staggered rotation of four months fighting and two months at home recuperating. Each month, one person would leave, and another would return, but there would always be a few Hatakes in their tiny compound left to recover and care for the younger children, the wolves, and the gardens where they were grownig food.

Nanako—the youngest of his cousins, but still older than him by five years—used to watch after and play with him in the one month both his parents were out fighting, but then she graduated. Within a year, she died, and he was five then, but still old enough to understand that she’d never come back. Her nin-wolf, Kiyone, came back from the war missing a leg, part of her tail, and her spirit. Sakumo didn’t see her again.

The other wolves took care of him after that. All the wolf cubs—summons and nin-wolves alike—were left behind in the compound, left under the care of whichever wolves are on the rest rotation. The wolf summons practically lived in the human world, restless with their summoners so far out of reach. 

And so Sakumo grew up with wolves, playfully snapping his teeth and trying to learn how to growl properly. Some of them matured faster than others and left to fight with Hatakes who have lost their wolf companions in battle (to create a new bond, but not replace. _Never_ replace, because these bonds are for life. It’s only possible to create new bonds. Never to replace old ones), and most of those once-playmates didn't come back.

Tsukiko is one of the few that did, with new scars and a new rawness to her actions. Especially in the first week, she hovered around Sakumo and the other wolf cubs, baring her fangs at anyone who approached whom she didn’t initially recognize, even the other Hatakes. Her paranoia mellowed over time, though, but she was still easily agitated (and Sakumo decided, as he backed away slowly, calmly watching the snarling, panicked wolf that used to let him win each time they raced, that he never wanted to see war. He didn't have a choice when war came for him, though).

Hiroto and Yuuma were two of the few who never left Sakumo’s side to fight in the war. They’re perhaps overly protective of him because of that, having never experienced the suffering of losing their summoner and absolutely terrified of feeling that. They work smoothly together, though, and even better with Sakumo working with them, but they don’t excel in combat like Tsukiko or Suka. They’re better suited for tracking and hunting, with senses superior even to his other wolves. Still, they prefer to guard him, circling the perimeter of his sleeping area continuously and swiftly.

He smiles softly, (they do that at home too), and closes his eyes, thinking sadly of Kakashi, who grew up with only him left in the clan, who has never had the chance to be buried beneath a veritable pack of wolf cubs, and who has never played with the two tiny cubs, the only cubs left to their clan, that haven't even left the summons world yet.

 _For you,_ he promises, and there is a fierce love welling up in his chest, _I’ll make everything better. When this war is over, I’ll come home, and we’ll talk, and the wolves will all but live in the human world like they used to. And I’ll make sure that no one can ever hurt you, because of me or because of anything._

_(And then we’ll be a family again)_

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to make it cute and fluffy and this ball of angst and trauma came out and i was like '?????' orz im so sorry
> 
> Please review. Feel free to ask any questions. Thank you for reading.


End file.
